Language and numeracy skills 'too low' among Blaenau Gwent youngsters

Trevor Guy, the interim director of education, warns that skills are not high enough from the moment children start nursery

Extra effort needs to be placed on core skills at a young age, says the director of education

English and maths skills amongst youngsters in Blaenau Gwent are still 'too low' the council’s education chief has warned.

Trevor Guy, interim director of education, has compiled a report to give an early indication of pupils’ performance in the borough in 2014.

It shows that performance in foundation phase, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and in GCSEs has seen improvement.

But Mr Guy said extra effort needs to be placed on core skills at a young age.

The report said: “Both language and numeracy skills overall are too low and this is evident from the point when children start nursery.

“Weak performance in the national reading and numeracy tests across all year groups, years two to nine confirms that this deficit is not being made up sufficiently for all children to be able to compete effectively in Key Stage 4 and beyond.”

The authority’s education service was put into special measures in 2011 and has since failed to get out of it.

Speaking about results from the national reading and numeracy tests, Mr Guy added: “Performance in this second year of national testing saw Blaenau Gwent perform relatively poorly.

“While the proportion of pupils in the mid range of scores for both reading and numeracy was fairly consistent with the national picture, the proportion of pupils at the lower end i.e. below a score of 85, was much greater than the proportion registering a score at the higher end i.e. over 115.

“This emphasises the need to focus even more closely on the core skills. There is cause to celebrate a number of successes in the performance of learners in Blaenau Gwent in 2014.

“Standards are rising in most schools, significantly so in some, which has helped improve Blaenau Gwent’s ranking on a number of indicators.

“However, the pace of progress is not sufficient as yet to lift the county borough from 22nd ranking in Wales on the main indicators in all phases of education.”

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